Apple has been notably absent from the public conversation around generative AI until recently. But AI is already very present on the iPhone, driving core features in popular apps such as the Camera, Photos and Siri among others. 

At the same time, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been more vocal about the technology -- suggesting that Apple's public AI push may finally be here. More than a year after ChatGPT took the global spotlight and catalyzed a tech arms race, CEO Tim Cook confirmed on an earnings call in February that Apple is investing in generative AI. Without offering specifics, he said there's "a huge opportunity for Apple with gen AI and AI."

Although Cook kept details to a minimum, research from Apple suggests the company could be working towards the goal of on-device AI for its iPhones. Apple followed that up with this week's announcement of new MacBook Air laptops, which the company touts as the "best consumer laptop for AI."

Only Apple knows what's next for the iPhone and its other products. But in the meantime, here are some of our favorite AI-based features on newer iPhones right now.

Clone your voice digitally

Apple may not have a chatbot, but it already uses AI in a feature that arrived with iOS 17 last year. Personal Voice is an accessibility setting that uses on-device machine learning to allow people at risk of speech loss to replicate their voice so they can more easily communicate with loved ones. To learn your voice, the iPhone asks you to read out loud 150 phrases. It then uses AI to analyze your voice and generates a synthetic version of it. 

To communicate using this new synthetic voice, you would use the iPhone's type-to-speak tools to turn text into speech in FaceTime and third-party compatible apps. If you're interested in learning how to clone and store your voice on your iPhone, here's a step-by-step guide.